CNChinese with selected English materialOfficial records available

China cosmetic ingredient regulations

IECIC is an inventory, not a blanket permission or safety decision.

Regulator: National Medical Products Administration
Source language: Chinese with selected English material
Coverage version: NMPA 2021 banned catalogues plus dynamic IECIC List I/List II system current since 2025

What this list is

China's list here is the NMPA catalogue of raw materials prohibited in cosmetics. It is a prohibition list only: the separate IECIC inventory records what has been used, which is not the same as what is allowed.

1,393 Chinese records, all of them prohibitions — there is no restricted or positive-list data in this set.
The IECIC inventory is a record of prior use, not an approval or a safety finding.
New raw materials outside the inventory require registration or filing before use.
The Chinese text is canonical; the English translations NMPA publishes are for information.

Every Chinese record on this site is a prohibition. That is a property of the source, not a gap in the import: the catalogue we hold names raw materials that may not be used in cosmetics, and says nothing about the ones that may.

The list that formulators most often reach for instead is the IECIC — the Inventory of Existing Cosmetic Ingredients in China. It is worth being precise about what that inventory is, because its name invites the wrong reading. IECIC records that an ingredient has been used in cosmetics in China, and under what maximum historical use. It is not an approval, it does not carry a safety finding, and being listed does not settle whether a particular use is acceptable. A substance outside it is treated as a new cosmetic raw material and needs registration or filing before it can be used at all.

The Cosmetic Supervision and Administration Regulation, in force since 2021, sits above both. It is the instrument that makes the distinction matter, by splitting raw materials into those subject to registration and those subject to filing according to risk.

The Chinese-language publications are authoritative. NMPA also publishes English material, and it is useful for orientation rather than for a compliance decision — where the two differ, the Chinese text governs.

Checked against

Official ingredient records

1393 matching records

ProhibitedBinding ruleOfficial English translationOfficial-source import checked

苯并[a]芘的含量大于 0.005%（w/w）的沥青, 来自高温煤焦油次级馏分 — Pitch, coal tar, high-temp, secondary （CAS No. 94114-13-3）, if it contains > 0.005% （w/w） benzo[a]pyrene

Pitch, coal tar, high-temp, secondary （CAS No. 94114-13-3）, if it contains > 0.005% （w/w） benzo[a]pyrene

CAS 94114-13-3

The NMPA binding 2021 catalogue prohibits this raw material in cosmetic formulas in China.

Conditions: Prohibited in cosmetic product formulas. Verify the cited Chinese source identity and any later NMPA amendment before use.

Source:NMPA 2021 Catalogue of Raw Materials Banned for Cosmetics, entry 1054 · version NMPA Announcement No. 74 of 2021, effective 2021-05-26 · effective May 26, 2021 · source checked 2026-08-31

What this list is

Checked against

Official ingredient records

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